Walter Sonntag (medic)

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Walter Sonntag (born May 13, 1907 in Metz ; † September 17, 1948 in Hameln ) was a German concentration camp dentist and war criminal .

Life

Sonntag was born the third child of a ministerial director. After completing his Abitur in Merzig , he studied dentistry at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich and the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel , where he passed the state examination in dentistry in 1932, was approved and in 1933 he was awarded a doctorate on lymphogranulomatosis. med. dent. PhD. From autumn 1934 he worked as a dentist in his own practice in Kiel. He continued his medical studies and obtained his medical license in May 1939. During his stay in the Dachau concentration camp in 1943, he wrote his second dissertation on the subject of medical legislation since 1933 .

Career in National Socialism

Walter Sonntag had been a member of the NSDAP since August 1933 ( membership number 2,683,413), since January 1, 1934 a member of the Schutzstaffel (SS) (SS number 2,357,328), and a member of the Waffen SS since September 1939 .

In 1939/40 he worked as a camp doctor in Sachsenhausen concentration camp and made experiments with the chemical warfare agent mustard gas (Lost) on at least 50 prisoners, some of whom died. Large, extremely painful blisters developed, like a burn. In his reports, Sonntag played down human experiments as "vaccinations".

From May 2, 1940 he worked in the Ravensbrück women's concentration camp , initially as SS-Untersturmführer , after promotion as SS-Hauptsturmführer . In his role as on- site doctor , he was the superior of the camp doctors and at the same time reported to Enno Lolling . There he carried out fatal “hoses” using phenol on “unfit for work” inmates. He was characterized by particular brutality. He mistreated the female prisoners, for example, by lashes in the face and in purulent wounds of sick prisoners. During the admission examinations, the women had to stand naked in front of him. The medical examination consisted of lashes and kicks. He was also involved in the fatal selections of concentration camp prisoners. On Heinrich Himmler's instructions, Sonntag experimented with the prostitutes interned in Ravensbrück by using them as his “laboratory rats” in search of a cure for gonorrhea and syphilis .

On July 21, 1941, he married Gerda Weyand , a gynecologist who also worked as a concentration camp doctor in the Ravensbrück concentration camp . In December 1941 (according to other sources: July 1941 or February 1942), after voluntarily reporting, he was transferred to the Eastern Front as a troop doctor and replaced by Gerhard Schiedlausky .

Then he was in the SS military hospital Riga-Rotenberg . In the autumn of 1942 he worked in the Dachau concentration camp in the health authority and supply testing center of the Waffen SS . In 1943 he became the first on-site doctor in the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp , and in 1944 in the Jamlitz subcamp ( Lübben district ) of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp .

Captivity and War Crimes Trial

In 1945 he was imprisoned in Carinthia by the British. In the summer of 1945 he was transferred to Graz, where he initially received privileged treatment. In April 1947 he was taken to Minden , where he was placed in solitary confinement. In July 1947 he was transferred to the Hamburg-Fischbeck prisoner-of-war camp. In the fourth of the seven Ravensbrück trials on June 4, 1948, after a one-month trial, Sonntag was sentenced to death for mistreatment, torture and murder of female prisoners . He tried to relieve himself by means of a network, including church dignitaries such as Cardinal Josef Frings , who campaigned for the reinstatement of former NSDAP members and supported the silent help that helped war criminals to escape. A pardon in which he stated that he had "never harmed an inmate" was also denied. His wife appeared in court as her husband's advocate. It is unclear why she was not also accused as a worker in the Ravensbrück concentration camp .

He was transferred from the Hamburg-Altona judicial prison to the Fuhlsbüttel prison and, after the judgment was confirmed (July 3, 1948), transferred to Hameln on September 15, 1948 . Two days later there, the execution by hanging . Sonntag was one of around 100 dentists who worked as concentration camp dentists in the Third Reich. He was one of 15 dentists sentenced to death as war criminals.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Dominik Groß , Christiane Rinnen, Walter Sonntag - Dentist and war criminals sentenced to death , Zahnärztliche Mitteilungen, Issue 9/2020, pp. 54–56, May 1, 2020. Accessed April 30, 2020.
  2. ↑ Heziel Pitogo, A Look Inside Ravensbruck, the Nazis' Death Camp for Women , War History Online, January 16, 2015. Retrieved May 2, 2020.
  3. ^ Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 . Frankfurt am Main 2003, p. 168.
personal data
SURNAME Sunday, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German concentration camp dentist, war criminal
DATE OF BIRTH May 13, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Metz
DATE OF DEATH September 17, 1948
Place of death Hamelin